Rival Game Aside – Bulldogs and Maroon Devils Must Take Care of the Ball and Execute

By Brandon Stephens

(Bryson City) – – Oh yeah this is the week isn’t it for football rivalry?  Everyone from Ranger to Toot Holler are reaching for their Maroon or Black and Gold and making predictions for Friday’s game with Murphy and Swain County.  Halloween is almost three weeks away and this Friday the 13^th game should have some tricks and treats to see.  The Swain County (7-0, 2-0) and Murphy (5-2,1-1) game has a long and deep history full of stories of triumphs and disappointments or platforms to see future college and professional stars that bring fans to their feet.  Friday 77th meeting between these two teams.  This game shouldn’t be any different from the 76 others in the past as the two teams have been working through a few bumps in the road to find and hold on to the identity of being the traditional Smoky Mountain Conference Power teams.  Murphy has a hold on Swain County winning the last five games.  The Maroon Devils have the overall advantage leading the historic series 41-33-2.  We will talk about the rivalry in detail a little later.  Let’s tell you about the game this week.

Murphy.  The Bulldogs are a tough team that never gives up.  Hunter Stalcup is nearing 900 yards rushing on 116 carries and 15 touchdowns.  No doubt the Swain County defensive eyes should be poised on the Rhinestone Cowboy for a few dives, buck sweeps, and counters.  Nothing nasty, but Freshman Cameron Clem is certainly turning a few heads with 500 yards and 4 touchdowns, but in key times to help push Murphy to victory and can turn from Bulldog to a black cat crossing the gridiron to jinx any team.  Brady Grant has completed 37 of 85 (45%) of his passes for 600 yards this season.  Some of those are screen passes to Stalcup to help open the rush.

Murphy defense is developing into a very threatening force.  The line and linebackers have good size and strength.  Going into the season you may think this younger defense would need learning and skill development.  Sophomores Brody Orton and Camden Breazeale are a couple of the leading tacklers with more than a dozen tackles, couple of sacks, and hurried quarterback plays in last week’s game with Robbinsville, a good trend that has been set all season.  Juniors Charlie Graves and Kadence Leatherwood are also in double figures not just in recent weeks but all season with sacks and solo stops.  Senior Will Joyner was cast-typed as the “kicker” until this season when he showed the opponents he tackles, sacks, and intercepts passes.  This week Joyner is nominated to be Western North Carolina defensive player of the week among others from 2-A and 3-A schools in Lincoln and Catawba counties.

Swain.  Any one of the Murphy coaches must be scheming to stop Swain County Senior Running Back Josh Collins.  The work this Maroon Devil puts out is something from a fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin turning hay to gold.  The hay may be under Collins’ feet as he is working toward 1,500 all-purpose yards on the season and a dozen touchdowns.  There must be a lucky number 13 in this story and that’s Senior Full Back Josiah Glaspie who spins any remaining part of the field Collins misses into gold.  This Maroon Devil team has almost practiced witchcraft by falling away from the veer offense, long-time bread and butter set for Swain, to adopt a spread look.  Bob Marr ribbed Coach Sherman Holt about the veer, and not the spread, is how Swain County football was played.  Spread has worked like a charm to help bridge some tight games for Swain County.  When Senior Quarterback Reece Winchester went out with an ankle injury a few weeks ago, the spread and a wildcat set to Josh Collins worked like magic…not witchcraft.  Winchester has helped orchestrate more rush plays rather than pass with a 35% completion rate (25 of 71).

Maroon Machine defense is also powerful, only giving up an average of 12 points per game.  The most point given up was 26 to Tuscola and two shutouts on Charlotte Country Day and Andrews.   Like the Bulldogs, the Maroon Devils have some younger players on the line.  263-pound Junior Nse Uffort and 6’4 Senior Cole Wikle have been stopping forces from the line along with 247-pound Junior End Grady Lewis.  Swain has been missing Senior Linebacker Lucas Sutton, but Sophomore Skeet Cook and Mason Cochran, with help from Josh Collins have denied many opponents’ threat and sacked a few quarterbacks this season.

Take Aways

Take care of the football.  This game is going to be a physical and tight game.  The Bulldogs and Maroon Devils had their fair share of fumbles and turnovers this season and in recent games.  The Maroon Devils had six turnovers with Hayesville and may have been able to slide out of Clay County with few more touchdowns.  Earlier in the season, costly errors in the red zone made games like the Smoky Mountain game scary and close.  Murphy has been plagued with penalties and a turnover last week that could have meant the difference in a win or taking the 21-to-26 loss to Robbinsville.  So, making sure each play is well-executed and eliminating the fumbles or turnovers is key.  Probably being a physical game, penalties could be costly as these type of games usually bring out the holding, block in the back, personal fouls, and some unsportsmanlike conduct call may be seen.  This is nothing anyone who has watched football is unable to conclude.  Each side can win the game.  This game will be close.  Let the players and coaches express their feelings of the rival week and how this game will be played.

Murphy Sophomore Quarterback Brady Grant is young and getting to know the history of the Murphy/Swain game.  Preparation and execution are the keys to the game for Grant.

This game is going to be Murphy Senior Running Back Hunter Stalcup’s third game to play.  Stalcup knows the Swain County game will be tough.

Murphy Head Football Coach Joseph Watson has played against Swain County, been an Assistant Coach, and now leads the coaching staff.  This game is obviously one where you do a lot of preparation and work the team diligently.

Everyone is tough in the Smoky Mountain Conference as you hear from all the players and coaches.  Josh Collins is expecting the best from Murphy.

Don’t take a week off when you are in the Smoky Mountain Conference portion of your season.  Swain County Quarterback Reese Winchester says the Maroon Devils have put in the work and are ready for the game.

The big rival game is here for Coach Sherman Holt.  Holt says this week is not really any different than others other than teams that want to beat each other more.  He knows the threats Murphy will pose.

(Stats are taken from MaxPreps and releases from Swain County or Murphy)

The Maroon Devils and Murphy Bulldogs – – The Rivalry

The meeting between Murphy and Swain is too good of a game to miss.  There are other great rival games in western North Carolina.  Burke County fans never missed the Fat Friday game between Freedom and Burke high schools.  Smoky Mountain (once upon a time Sylva-Webster) and Franklin fill the stands and make for interesting fall highlights.  There will be almost 20-thousand fans battle their way around the fire marshal in Haywood County to see Pisgah and Tuscola play. Smoky Mountain Conference has its mini rivals of Cherokee and Robbinsville with fans/relatives of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians cheering.  The Hayesville-Murphy game can get chippy.  Recently the Robbinsville-Murphy game has become a large attraction.  For decades the Swain-Murphy rivalry has been one of the best last game of the season and for most of that team the showcase of the greatest talents players in the mountains.

To sound like CBS anchor Charles Kurlat…What is it that brings us to these hallowed settings where the fall winds blow among the maple, oak, pine and poplar trees watching over Memorial stadium and the Hill in Bryson City and the hamlet named after Archibald Murphy?  Is it the delicious feast of a Na-Bers Cheeseburger or roar of hearing “First and Ten Bulldogs?”  It is the game between the beloved teams mascot clad of Bulldog black and gold and Maroon and White Devils.  It’s the cheers and tears from those October games that had cowbells and pops of leather in the air and the friendships we make between the 48 mile mountain gap of the Nantahala Gorge that bind these two communities.  After each game there is another thread of fabric spun and woven into the tapestry that keeps a mountain heritage alive and strong.

The history of the Swain-Murphy game has united decades of football talent.  They came with names like Hyatt, Brown, Shuler, White, Winchester, and Childers in Bryson City.  They came with names like Lovingood, Kephart, Pickens, Curtis, Charles, Powell, Nelson, and Laney in Murphy.  Two iconic names stand out . . .Deitz and Gentry.  This past summer former Swain County Head Football Coach Boyce Deitz and former Murphy Head Football Coach David Gentry were inducted into the North Carolina High School Athletic Hall of Fame.  For good reason.  More than a few of their players like Carl Pickens or Heath Shuler played major college football, and had opportunity for these two to play in the NFL.  Many have played college football and went on to good careers, most crediting the leadership of Coach Gentry and Coach Deitz.

The state championship trophy and honor has been in western North Carolina for many years during the decades Gentry and Deitz were active coaches.  Deitz started the impressive collection of state championships with a 2-A title in 1979 with a 28-to-21 win over Clayton.  For the next 14 years the 1-A state title was held by either Robbinsville, Murphy, or Swain County.  During 1984 Jamesville defeated Rosman for the title.  For Coach Deitz, Swain County defeated North Edgecombe 32-to-0 in 1985; Midway 23-to-7 in 1988; Currituck 35-to-14 in 1989; and Robersonville Roanoke 40-to-14 in 1990.

Coach Gentry during this time racked up two state titles shortly after moving to Murphy.  Under his leadership, the Bulldogs defeated Tabor City 27-to-3 in 1986; Columbia 56-to-15 in 1987; Rosewood 30-to-3 in 1991.  Outside of the Deitz-Gentry Era, Coach Gentry would help led the Bulldogs to a state 1-A title in 1996 with a 13-to-0 win over North Edgecombe; 21-to-6 win over Jones Senior in 2011; 35-to-34 win over Plymouth in 2013; and later titles in 2016, 2018, and 2021 before retiring.

Between the two coaches, they also led teams to the state championship five times and did not win the titles in 1993, 1994, 1995, 2010, and 2012. The impressive part of these coaches has been how they worked to adapt with student athletes and understand their changing nature and social trends.  That has made their leadership something to build and model other coaches and programs.  The rough canopy of three decades landed more Smoky Mountain Conference Championship titles between these two schools.

Radio and the syrup-filled voices of describing these great football games are an honored tradition and position to have bringing the action to loving Bulldog and Maroon Devil fans through media like radio and eventual Internet streaming television.  Gary Ayers, Voice of the Maroon Devils, has witnessed more of these games and brought that action to a lot of people, by radio.  We visited with him prior to his Maroon Devil Network pregame interview with Coach Sherman Holt to gain a reporter’s perspective of the game you’re about to see…the new chapter and thread about to become heritage.  Gary is an honored journeyman in sportscasting and has been inducted into the Swain County High School Athletic Hall of Fame; Memorial Stadium Press Box is named after him; and he will be inducted into the Western Carolina University Athletic Hall of Fame on November 11^th at Halftime of the East Tennessee State football game.  Gary Ayers shares his thoughts on why the Murphy and Swain game is so good and a big rival game to see.

Stay connected to Team FYN Sports for a wrap up of the Swain v Murphy game and score update on other western North Carolina and north Georgia games this coming Friday night.

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